Let it End in Darkness
by wordbearer
Summary: AU Raven must deal with the consequences of being the daughter of the daemonic Trigon.
1. Let it End in Darkness

Okay, I'm going to try my hand at Teen Titan's fiction now, but I fear that that my Warhammer 40k leanings are showing. This is Raven by way of the Apocalypse, so be warned. Disclaimer: Teen Titans is the property of someone connected with Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging that person! I don't seek to make a profit and hope that this doesn't get me sued... Please! Enjoy the show!

Let It End in Darkness...

A Teen Titans Story

By Wordbearer

Raven stood on Titan's island, gazing into the setting sun. The world was stained red with light, making the ocean seem like blood. She shivered with the aptness of the thought. Her blue uniform was torn and stained, ash clinging to her cape. With slow deliberateness, the half-daemon turned and faced Jump City. The city was burning, skeletons of skyscrapers silhouetted by the dying light of the sun. She could make out the outlines of fluttering shapes with bony wings that occasionally rose, clutching victims before dropping them to their doom. Only two days before everything had seemed so normal.

The Titans had taken a rare break: Robin headed to Gotham city to visit his old mentor, Batman, while Starfire took advantage of 'joyous interstellar warp travel conditions' to take a brief visit to her homeworld of Tammaran. That had left Raven, Beastboy and Cyborg to watch the city. Things had been quiet until two days ago. The boys had left her alone, entranced by the latest of their video game acquisitions. She was meditating in the comforting darkness of her room when she felt the first mental blow. It was nauseating, causing her to fall on her butt and making her vision ripple. The sensation was familiar from a thousand confrontations, but far more powerful. Her hand mirror, the accursed device that led to the tortured dominion of her mind, shattered and the psychic feedback gave her a headache. Before she could suffer from that however, another spasm shook her mind and body. A thin grey mist began to leak from her body and gather above her. The sensation burned every part of her and a familiar voice taunted Raven as the mist thickened and turned black.

"Hello child. I am glad to see you at last, unfettered by avatars and barriers on this most glorious of days," Trigon's mocking voice echoed through Raven's thoughts as she writhed in pain.

"How are you doing this?"

The question was an agonized whisper yet he heard her as he always did. "There shall come a day when all gates shall stand unguarded and the Dark Lord shall pass into the world if a spawn of his blood draws breath in the world. I was promised this by the mother of creation herself at the dawn of time."

Raven's only response was to close her eyes, Trigon's naked essence overwhelming her senses. "Your resistance amused me all these years, daughter. It was only a matter of time until I gained my freedom, and the appointed day happens to be now." The room was pitch-black by now and Raven slumped as the last stream of matter exited her form.

The door to Raven's room slammed open propelled out of its groove by the force of Cyborg's shoulder. The larger titan skidded to a halt as he saw the cloud of darkness and exclaimed, "Raven! What in the name of heck is going on?" Beastboy could be seen huddling in the outer hallway.

"Ah, your saviors. How amusing. I think I'll get some long desired vengeance." Only Raven could hear Trigon's voice as the dark cloud extended a pitch black tendril and engulfed Cyborg's form.

She whispered, her voice thick with horror, "No! Please. No." Frost appeared on Cyborg and the lighted panels studding his mechanical parts exploded in showers of sparks. Electricity jolted through his form, raising an unpleasant stink of burning plastic and charring flesh as he was ravaged by the shadow. His mouth was open to scream, agony clear on his features, but no sound could be heard.

The darkness withdrew as Raven's father spoke one last time, "I shall spare you and the green youth for another time. I have all eternity after all..." Deafening laughter filled her head as the mist melted into the ceiling, leaving it pitted and scarred.

The tableau held for one horrible moment: Beastboy stunned and silent looking into the room, Raven on the floor, shaky arms supporting her weight as she held her eyes tightly shut and Cyborg, burned and frozen by the touch of absolute evil, upright as a monument to violent death. Then Cyborg fell with a loud thud.

Beastboy rushed over to his friend crying, "Cy! Are you okay? Speak to me! Cy! Cyborg..." Beastboy broke down as the other remained silent, his ebony features slack in death. Raven slowly rose to her feet, a deadness on her face as she tried to hold it together. She simulated a control she didn't feel and surges of black energy arched from her body like miniature bolts of lightning. She was silent, gulping several times to regain her breath, sweat beading on her face and soaking her uniform.

Raven spoke to the sobbing Beastboy, "He's dead, Beastboy."

Turning on her fiercely, his grief turned to anger with the addition of a target, he replied, "You don't think I know that? You think I'm that stupid? Well, I'm not! Just be quiet, 'Miss I'm above it all'!" The comment hurt and Beastboy immediately apologized, but that did little to sooth her burgeoning sense of guilt and the growing conviction that things may just have started on their way to hell.

A clatter of rocks disturbed Raven's thoughts and she looked behind her as Beastboy made his way down the slope. He was tired and worn down by the events of the past few days but his irrepressible good nature allowed him to give the grey skinned mystic a slight smile, "Gathering your thoughts for tonight, Raven? Or just taking in the view?"

Grateful for the small gesture of normality but not showing it, "Just checking to see if the edict still holds the daemon hoards back. It does." She let a tear trickle down her check unseen as the dimming light brought the city's death knell into ghastly clarity.

A sudden surge of anger caused her to rattle the rocks all around her, "That monster! I repress him for years and it was all for nothing. He won't even fight me!" She felt that since Trigon had already escaped, there was little point to masking every emotion, but she calmed out of habit.

Shaken by the display, Beastboy commented, "Hey, it just means you're not on his 'to do' list. He's got a planet to kill after all."

Raven unleashed a tight glare at the changeling, who sheepishly backed off. In light of the recent events, that comment was really not funny. After they had grimly dragged Cyborg's body to his room, they had tried to raise the other Titans. Starfire was out of range and Robin reported that he was pinned down in Gotham as tides of daemons boiled out of the woodwork and assaulted the city. This was what Raven feared. To let something as powerful as her father, she spat at the title, out of the Abyss would bring a host of lesser beasts out with it. To make things worse, Trigon had vanished after leaving the Tower, content to let other spawn do his dirty work and remain undetectable. Trigon had forbidden his minions one thing though: they could not attack Raven, Beastboy, or Titan's island. This little unpleasantry had become clear on their first excursion when daemons had attacked Jump City.

Raven and Beastboy had flown out of the tower to the place where the daemons first assaulted, a quick look of relief passing between them at the thought of being able to fight back. Silently, still filled with sorrow and anger over their friend's death, they descended, intending to cut the daemons down like angry gods. Raven saw a multitude of horrors she had only heard described in the most obscure of Azarathian texts: tzentchen flamers, many faced and spiting eldritch fire, daemonettes, lithe and leathal with razor sharp talons, juggernauts, hulking infernal machines that hungered for blood, scampering tides of nurglings that spread disease in their wake with tiny poisoned teeth and others too foul for description.

Raven stopped as Beastboy continued to dive in hawk form, chanting her words of power, "Azarath Medrion Zenthos." Ebony power engulfed a destroyed car and the vehicle smashed against a juggernaut in a shower of smoking metal pieces. Beastboy didn't bother to slow down, shifting into gorilla form atop a swarm of nurglings as he landed with a splat.

A daemonette looked up at Raven and screeched, the shrill cry drawing other daemon's gazes before an airborne black blade of energy chopped it in half. The other daemons began to back away in fear from the two titans before fleeing. Beastboy tried to crush the nurglings who scurried away from his feet like obsese rodents. Raven was puzzled by this, yet continued to hurl debris like lethal rain at them as they departed. Another repetition of her magic words and a bus scythed through their ranks but not one nurgling remained to fight them, the mass of hellspawn seemingly intent on flight. Beastboy raged, before giving her a 'what the heck?' look and shapeshifting back to his normal form. Raven landed as well. She could see far down the street, packs of daemons pursuing hapless civilians, but it was if a magic perimeter was drawn around their position.

"Come on, Raven. We have to stop them," Beastboy implored. Raven nodded agreement, but the same effect occurred every time they tried to engage the beasts: wholesale flight from the pair of Titans. It was nightmarish. They saw Cinderblock fleeing down a street swarmed by nurglings with flamers blasting him from afar. Nothing seemed to stand against the tide of abysmal denizens. Raven and Beastboy were not allowed to intervene.

Beastboy announced at one point, "I know we're scary, but we're not THAT scary." Nothing but bodies and ruined buildings met their sight. Hours later, the pair returned home demoralized and confused.

"You ready to do this?" Beastboy asked her as the sun vanished into the ocean, bringing Raven out of her thoughts.

"For about ten years now. I need to speak privately with my father one last time."

She let a grim smile cross her face that left Beastboy slightly nervous as he asked, "What do you need me to do again?" "Keep them off me. Once he realizes what I'm doing he'll dispatch every single horror at his command to destroy me. You have to prevent him from doing that."

Beastboy gulped at the stone hard seriousness of the statement but gathered his resolve, "So here, or on the roof of Titans Tower? I prefer the roof."

The blue clad mystic replied in a low monotone, "I agree with you. We can see them coming that way."

Raven led the way into Titans Tower, studiously ignoring the moans of wounded civilians who lay all over the floor or huddled against the wall. There was one upside to Trigon's edict: rescue duty. They had made several runs over to Jump City, searching out hidden sanctuaries, and ferried frightened citizens back to the island. But it was never enough. Whenever the Titans withdrew, the daemons came back and continued their rampage. A more permanent solution needed to be found. So Raven had withdrawn to the soothing darkness of her room which the refugees avoided like fearful parishioners skirting around the inner sanctum of a temple. There she read and meditated, seeking an answer to the holocaust she had unwittingly unleashed. She had found an answer at last and meant to put into action tonight.

"You inform the refugees where they're supposed to go. I'll go and set up what we need," Raven's tone was cold and commanding, but the green youth was in no mood to oppose her will.

As she phased her way through the ceiling, Beastboy activated the intercom and spoke, his voice echoing throughout Titans Tower, "This is your captain Beastboy speaking. Heh, heh, heh..."

Kicking himself for not being able to focus, he continued in a more serious tone, "Everyone is to go into the basement shelters immediately. The healthy will transport the wounded and the doors will be sealed in 45 minutes. You will be informed when to leave the shelters, but remain calm." He left the room, forging a path to the roof as streams of people made their way downward.

Raven was waiting for him. Her eyes closed as she took in some last minute meditation, her mantra quietly whispered under her breath. Beastboy remained silent and closed the door. Raven nodded appreciatively in his direction, the gesture almost hidden in the darkness of the cloudy night.

This tableau remained until the timer on his belt beeped and Beastboy spoke, "Rise and shine, Raven. The civilians should all be in the shelter by now and its getting kind of cold out here."

Raven rolled her eyes in contempt as the changeling shivered for effect, but got up. "Clear enough, you know what to do when they come, but until then... Just be quiet." Raven walked over to a cloth covered object and pulled back the blue material. Revealed was a black orb the size of her fist that seemed to pulsate malignantly. Beastboy took an involuntary step backwards.

Ignoring the changeling's reaction, Raven engulfed her arms in ebony power and clutched the object in both hands. She tensed involuntarily in pain, but didn't falter, a torrent of whispered words flowing out of her mouth and into the empty air. The black power flared, drowning out all vision, and flared again. The orb ignited, glowing with a sullen scarlet aura that made Raven appear to be washed with blood, overpowering the faint illumination of her eyes. Something changed in the ether, a subtle warping that raised cries of alarm from the world. Clouds spiraled above Titans Tower and a sense of great evil gathered in the air. Beastboy could pick up faint daemonic cries and hellish winged shapes that hurried toward the island. He turned away from the spectacle that was Raven and got ready to face their attackers.

Raven could hear her father's voice roaring in her head as she continued, but ignored it, "What do you do, spawnling?!? What madness is this defiance?" Raven felt the air grow thick around her as Trigon was drawn to the orb, his hidden essence drawn by the arcane device.

"You cannot win against me!" A shockwave crashed onto the tower but Raven stilled it with a slight diversion of her power. She didn't open her eyes, but she could feel Beastboy holding back the incoming flock of daemons and chanted all the more insistently.

"I will destroy you, and torture your soul for all eternity. Know my wrath!" Trigon's mental shout was almost incoherent with anger as he was drawn closer and tighter. A beam of hellish might issued forth from the black cloud that was the daemon lord but Raven blocked it again, the crimson energy deflected from her black shield. The floor beneath her crumpled from the pressure as Raven channeled more power into the orb, leaving her levitating above a yawning abyss as one branch of the tower sheered away. Trigon fought with all his cosmic might to escape the pull of the bauble clutched in his daughter's hand.

The might of Trigon was great. He was as old as time and only Lucifer the Morningstar had beaten the fell spirit in combat, but Raven was his child and was fueled by her convictions and the curiously inexhaustible power of the human soul. Not for nothing did she fear her own power. Her hands burned as runes began to blaze white on the sphere's surface and Trigon was drawn into the device. The backlash of eldritch power shook half-daemon mystic and sent the daemons clustered around Beastboy reeling to the ground. Raven almost fell, but she remained floating and carefully lowered herself to the raining section of the roof. She was half dead with fatigue, but the task was not yet done.

"Father," she directed her voice telepathically into the orb knowing that she could be heard over Trigon's endless scream, "This device is forged of Azarathian glass and will hold you forever if I will it." She knew that the accursed mirror would be good for something.

The reply was faint as if the daemon lord was miles away, "I will be freed."

Raven allowed herself a cold smile and said, "No father. You shall not. This orb is marked with runes of protection against daemons. I can barely hold it. What will a full daemon do? And Azarathian glass is all but unbreakable."

She could feel Trigon trying to find a loophole, any loophole, that could free him from this cold prison, then, "What do you want in exchange for my liberation?"

"Nothing. Everything. My friend back, my mother back, those monks that you made me kill when I was six. I want you to have never poisoned my life!" Raven shook with anger, the surge of power shaking the damaged tower.

Raven forced herself to get calm and made her demands, "You will pull the daemon swarms on this earth back into the abyss. You will return to the abyss from whence you came. And you will give me your True Name."

Trigon roared inside her head, fury and pride warring with a terror so overwhelming that it broke his morale. "...and then you will free me?" Freedom was the only thing a daemon would not surrender, could not live without. To be bound was worse than death and this fear made Trigon agree to the demands though they would hobble him for as long as Raven lived.

"Yes," Raven succinctly answered, "I will release you from this sphere."

Trigon's voice sounded querulous and weak as he spoke, "Agreeed..."

"Your True Name first," His daughter demanded. The reply was a long sibilant stream of syllables that could never issue forth from a human mouth without causing the speaker's tongue to blister and blacken. Raven hoped that she would never have cause to say it aloud as she filed it away in her mind.

"Now, the recall of your hosts," Raven was stern and looked at the unconscious daemons around Beastboy's feet as they vanished in response to Trigon's silent command. The wave of power spread outward and she knew that by the following dawn the infestation of the planet would be over. Trigon would not pull so petty a trick as a partial withdrawal when he was so vulnerable.

"My freedom?" Trigon asked as Raven stared into the night. It would be easy to leave him trapped and bury the orb in a faraway place...

But she was not her father and her father was the one who broke promises.

"Very well. Azarath." The glowing runes began to fade.

"Medrion." The ruddy orb dimmed.

"Zenthos." A black mist channeled out of the orb and into Raven who dropped to her knees in reaction to the numbing cold. She demanded, "What trickery is this?" Trigon sounded smug as he passed into the Abyss via her form, "You are the portal. There is but one way I can enter or leave this world. Consider it a passing gift from me."

His voice faded as the barriers formed behind him, trapping the daemon lord once more, "You are indeed a worthy child of my blood. I fear for your world if you ever heed the call of your..." Raven blinked as the hated voice fell silent and slumped over. Beastboy hastened to her side and took her downstairs to the infirmary.

Raven would sleep for the next three days, her mind and body utterly drained by the ordeal. She opened her eyes and saw the blinding white wall of Titans Tower infirmary.

"Ugh. Just what I needed to wake up to."

A reply stunned her and she turned her head, "Glad to see that you are your usual self, Raven." Robin was the one who spoke, the masked youth seemingly none the worse for wear.

"Thanks," she sarcastically replied, then fell silent as she thought of what had happened the last several days.

Guessing the source of her sudden introspection Robin said, "Beastboy told me what happened to Cyborg. I'm definitely going to miss him, but he would have been proud of how you saved the world." Robin rubbed his eyes to hide his sorrow, but Raven's empathy made the gesture cut into her like a knife.

She thought to herself, "None of this would have happened if it wasn't for me. All those people dead and all the damage done. My fault, all my fault for not knowing when I'm being toyed with."

Robin again interpreted her minute facial expression and spoke with that eerie directness, "You may have been Trigon's portal here, but it was he was the one who did all this damage. You stopped him."

He paused and let a wry grin slip across his face, "Though you were the one to turn Titan's Tower into an upside down 'L'."

For once Raven wore a surprised expression on her face and asked in a sharp tone, "How do you know about Trigon?" She pointed almost accusingly at him and noticed for the first time that her hands were throbbing in pain and covered in bandages.

Robin spoke again, "Don't you know? Titan's Tower has been turned into the local super hero convention site for the west coast. Some big shot by the name of Martian Manhunter filled everyone in on the details of what happened. They're going to want to talk to you."

Groaning aloud, Raven asked, "I'm going to have to go out there, aren't I?"

"Afraid so. I'll give you a few minutes to pull yourself together. Don't take too long or Beastboy is going to come in here to get you. You've been all he's talked about since I got back here." Her face twisted into a grimace at the thought, and Robin turned to go.

Before he left, the half-daemon mystic asked, "Robin? Could you turn the light out when you go? I'd like to be in the dark for a while."

"No problem." Robin closed the door and the room was engulfed in gloom. Raven was half invisible as she rose and slipped her cloak over her thin shoulders and went out to face the world: a world that had been enshrouded by her father's darkness, but had been saved by her shadowy power. Perhaps that was light enough.

So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? If you see fit, leave a review, and tell me what you think. Thank you for your time.


	2. Chance Meetings in the Canyons

Okay, I know I said this would be a one shot piece, but I got an idea that was too good to let go and decided to attach this to the first chapter. This is a lighter chapter than the first, though when you provoke the Apocalypse you can hardly go darker from there... The phrase 'pre-Terra alternate universe' will prove important here, so be aware. Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans in any way, shape or form. That honor belongs to someone connected with Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging that person! I don't want to make a profit from this and just hope that this doesn't get me sued... Okay, Review responses and then story.

Blackshield: I am not insinuating that Trigon is the devil; in fact I said that he had fought the devil and lost. (Lucifer the Morningstar is Satan's full biblical name. The stuff you find in books, huh?) He's just so strong, that he ripped quite an impressive dimensional rift as he came through from the Abyss. Don't mean to sound patronizing.

Slayergirl1362: Daemonology 101 lesson: all daemons have a True Name, a name bound to their innermost essence. If another being learns this True Name and recites it aloud, they will acquire absolute power over said daemon. Cyborg is still dead because even if Raven had asked for him back (she didn't), Trigon can't raise the dead. He's good, but not that good... Sorry if I was confusing.

Chance Meetings Amid the Canyons

A Teen Titans Story

By Wordbearer

Titans Tower was a madhouse these days. Raven would have scarcely believed it possible in the days before Trigon's abortive release, but with super heroes running in and out, meetings held, and the general insanity that engulfed the planet since the incident, the tower was filled with noise. To make matters worse for the shaken mystic, her room had been in the part of the tower that had sheered off and lay broken near the tower's base. In angry desperation she had taken residence in one of the basement storage rooms. She had been offered a guest room by Robin but the cheerful décor and view of Jump City, not the most soothing of visages these days, had made her decide to bring a sleeping bag into the basement and hole up there. Not that the basement was empty by any means, as she opened the door and nearly ran into a yellow clad figure who called himself Speedy.

The other stammered, "Sorry Raven. I was sent down here for some more toilet paper. I'll go get it now..." He turned and ran off in the wrong direction, looking over his shoulder fearfully.

Raven sighed and tucked her hood over her head as she thought, "Break a few objects and everyone runs away in fear at your arrival..." She had snapped a few times in the stressful days immediately after her recovery and only her fellow Titans weren't skittish around her, much. Beastboy, half as joke, had taped a crudely written sign to her current door, 'Raven's Room. Do Not Enter. You Have Been Warned!' and someone taped it up again whenever it fell down. This started her on a morbid train of thought that she conscientiously avoided as she entered the main hall.

At this early hour of the morning the place was all but deserted, only Robin present, entranced by a report. This suited Raven perfectly as she set her water to boil and walked over to the masked youth, uncharacteristic doubt slowing her steps.

Setting her emotionless expression firmly in place, the half-daemon asked, "Robin, may I speak with you?"

He looked up at the monotone question, flashed a quick smile as he bookmarked his place and replied, "Sure, Raven. What's on your mind?"

"A lot of things. I need to get out of this place for a couple days. There's nowhere I can safely meditate with all these people around and I think its showing." Her statement was true, more or less. The flyers used the roof to come in and out. The island was dotted with refugee shelters. The tower itself was full of visitors and workers as they effected repairs. Raven had been temperamental as consequence and the Tower was running out of spare appliances.

Robin asked, "You have an idea where you want go?"

Raven answered, "Of course. Are you sure you can spare me?"

She left unspoken the thought, "This is my mess and I need to help clean it up."

Robin spoke confidently, "There are more people here than I know what to do with. Go ahead, I think you are owed some vacation time anyway. Just bring a communicator with you."

Raven nodded slightly in gratitude as the kettle boiled and said softly, "Then I'll be leaving before Beastboy and Starfire get back from night patrol. If I try to go while they're here, they'll insist on coming along. Then I'll get no meditating done." Robin grinned wryly at the comment and turned back to his book as Raven drank her tea.

She gazed out the window toward the rising sun and thought to herself, "If I had to take someone, Starfire might not be too bad a companion for this thing. She's less flighty then she was and actually has joined me for meditation before. Beastboy though... He's been rather clingy lately, acting like he's in love with me or something." She shuddered at the image that sprang into her head at the thought. In response to her emotion, a pillow glistened black quickly, and softly slapped against the window.

Looking at the pillow accusingly, she made her way out of the room, stopping on the steps as Robin asked, "When are you going to be back?"

Raven concisely replied, "A week or so," and phased through the wall on her way to her gathered supplies.

Later that day, Raven hovered over the canyons to the east of Jump City. These canyons were familiar to her from a dozen previous visits. After she had left Azarath, but before she joined the Titans, she had used the shadowy confines of this maze of gorges as a safety valve, a place to explosively vent in privacy. No one came here and no one noticed the occasional new crater or shifting arrangement of scattered rock. She hadn't felt the need to do so in years as she mastered her meditative techniques, but with the conditions at the Tower being what they were, Raven felt like exploiting the solitude of this place once more. The mystic lowered herself to the ground, the blue cloak fluttering around her. Raven wore her normal uniform with one exception: her soft shoes were replaced with a pair of battered, yet serviceable boots in concession to the terrain she might face. The shadows of the canyon cast stripes upon her form as she made her way to a familiar cave. Raven stopped at the cave's mouth as the odor of old wood smoke breezed out. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she spotted a cluttered pile of camping gear in the corner of the cavern.

"Perfect," she thought, "More refugees." Raven quashed the unkind thought and reprimanded herself as she cautiously extended her empathic senses to see if she could find whoever owned these supplies.

The confusing barrage of messages she received confirmed her reasons for normally not tapping this temperamental gift. She extracted a general heading from the cacophony of desert life and took a path along the canyon floor, not using her energies as she carefully nursed an incipient migraine. Raven came to a bend in the canyon and could hear the sound of someone humming as they threw stones into the water with a dull rhythmic splash.

Walking around the corner, she said sympathetically, for Raven away, to the half seen figure, "Hello? Are you okay?" Raven stopped talking as the figure spun around in a swirl of blond hair. A pair of large blue eyes stared out of a narrow face. The person was female and about 15 years old, though the nearly anorexic girl was about as curved as ruler. She wore a battered outfit and a bandage on one grimy arm.

The girl took one look at Raven, eyes blazing with terror and shouted. She then took off and darted past a corner. The dark mystic sighed to herself, levitated off the ground, and followed the blond. Too many people were like this in the aftermath of the daemonic attack, paranoid and broken. The Titans had evolved a routine to handle people like this: chase, subdue, and then drag back to medical personnel. What happened as soon as Raven cleared the turn was anything but routine however. The girl looked back, halted, and her hand took on a golden glow. Raven's eyes widened slightly but remained alert enough to dodge a flying stone with the same golden aura.

Seeing a dozen or so more rocks about to take to the air as well, Raven muttered under her breath, "Azarath. Medrion. Zinthos." A hastily formed black shield absorbed the hail of stones, but the unknown superhuman had dashed off again.

"I'll get no meditation done with her running around," Raven thought to herself as she continued after her. "Better to catch her now so that I can get some peace."

Catching sight of her target as she dashed around the corner, Raven engulfed a stone in her ebony power and lobbed it at the girl's back. Some sixth sense warned the blond of the projectile and she halted the stone in mid air. The thin superhuman sent the stone back at Raven, who tried to halt it with her power. The stone halted midair, its ebony shell broken by arches of gold lightning. A battle of wills ensued, neither female willing to bend. A heavy pressure gathered in the air as a wall of floating stone formed between the two, drawn by their conflicting fields of power. Something in Raven's daemonic heritage exalted in the conflict and she continually chanted her mantra under her breath to keep her power under control.

The blond was less coherent, screaming at the top of her lungs as a cloud of dust spiraled around her. The terrible scene held still a moment: two mentalists locked in combat their eyes blazing with power and a wall of stone flashing black and gold between them, flexing like a storm ridden sea. The thin blonde's cries took on a higher note as if an old terror was unleashed, and an explosive wall of force engulfed the canyon. Stone crumbled around her, tearing at the walls, dropping her into a newly opened chasm and sending the wall of stone flinging at Raven with unstoppable force. Raven knew she was going to die when something went snap in her mind and the laws of physics twisted as her non-human heritage unfurled.

Her cloak, previously flapping in the wind, dropped downward as it grew and tendrils of absolute darkness flowed from beneath it to shield her body. The rock storm scattered around her expanding form as a second pair of eyes gleamed from the shadows of her hood. The white glow of her eyes turned red, forming a sinister contrast with the blue of her robe which fluttered with fitful life. The barrage of stones continued from below as golden glowing rock flew upward. She dropped into the hole, her tendrils leaving a trails of frost where they touched.

The one corner of her mind that was free of bloodlust desperately thought, "I must not kill. I am in control of my emotions. Rage is the destroyer of all. I must not kill. I am in control of..."

The phrases repeated as the girl looked up with golden blazing eyes and fearfully muttered, "Demon. I can stop it. I stopped them before. I just need to get control." A large stone slammed into Raven, who was borne up by it even as her ebony tendrils tore through the barrier. Eager to rend this opponent's flesh, Raven hit the ground in front of the blond, stones futilely impacting her robe as a fierce smile lit up the mystic's normally deadpan face. It was a smile that would only widen at the thought of the world's destruction and laugh at the death of billons. A large glowing rock hit her in the face, but she merely shrugged off the wound, buoyed by extra-dimensional endurance.

The blond looked at her attacker and spoke carefully, "I can't stop you but I want you to know something. My name is Terra and I'm not afraid of you." Inside her head, Raven halted her mantra and fought to regain control in earnest. The floor frosted as her tendrils moved to engulf Terra, her eyes blazing like a nightmare flame. Terra slumped over exhausted, but before she was engulfed Raven reared back against the wall. Amid a hail of floating dust, her tendrils flickered and withdrew.

The grin faded as a determined whisper bled past her lips, "Azarath. Medrion."

The glow of her second set of eyes faded. "Zinthos. Azarath."

Her robe shrank and her legs became visible again. "Medrion. Zinthos." Raven shakily got to her feet, looking down at Terra.

The half-daemon spoke, her voice a shaken mockery of her usual firm control, "Terra. It seems that I may not be the only one with control issues. So much for my alone time." Raven shrugged, wincing at the pain of her bruises, and slowly levitated the two out of the chasm as it continued to crumble around them.

Terra groaned as she regained consciousness. She started as she recalled her last few moments of awareness and realized she was no longer in her self made chasm. Looking around the darkened space, she didn't notice Raven until she spoke, "You're awake."

Terra locked eyes on the blue blur, "Well, yeah. I think that I am anyway. Who are you?"

Raven moved into the light and Terra stiffened in fear, but before she could run the mystic said, "That's not important. What is important is for you to calm down and not break your neck in this place at night. I think we got off on the wrong foot today."

Terra blinked, "Okay. That's one way you can put it. Wait a second..."

She paused as she put two and two together, "You're Raven, aren't you? Of the Teen Titans?"

Raven rolled her eyes in the shadows of her hood, "I see my fame precedes me. I go out here to be alone and I find a super powered groupie."

Terra shook her head in denial, "It's nothing like that. I travel around a lot and hear rumors."

Terra let a cocky grin cross her face as she grew more confident that the other girl wasn't going to kill her. "I was a little jumpy though today. Some clawed freaks tried to jump me a few weeks ago and they weren't going to stop at a mugging either. And you must admit that your 'four-eyed, tendrils of darkness' attack was kind of frightening. I'd heard you were the scary one of the group, but that was over the top. What was up with that?" Terra looked at Raven expectantly.

Though she didn't react externally, Raven scowled inwardly at the comment as she thought to herself, "Great, stereotyping and intrusive questions. You're scoring points with me today, Terra."

Aloud Raven said, "I'll ask you this Terra. What happened with the sudden power level spike mid-battle? If it was controlled, great tactic. Otherwise, it seems someone can't handle their powers." Terra's smile faltered, and Raven knew she had scored a direct hit.

Hesitantly the blond answered, "Ah, never mind that. I'm hungry."

Her stomach rumbled on cue and Raven responded, "I gathered some wood. You light that up and we can have some of the food I brought." Terra brightened at the thought of food and went in to start, leaving Raven alone on the edge looking at the stars.

Raven thought to herself, "This should prove an interesting week. This Terra has more issues than a hydrophobic fish, though I'm not one to talk." Raven closed her eyes and sighed, wrapping her cloak tightly around her as light bloomed in the cave. Terra began cursing at the can opener and Raven went into the cave to help.

So you made it down here. What do you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? If you see fit, leave a review and tell me what I'm doing wrong or right. Hope that you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for your time.


	3. To Defeat the Darkness, One Must Let in ...

Okay. Chapter three hits home, took me long enough. I won't bore you, so straight to the disclaimer and then the story. I don't own Teen Titans in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to someone connected with Cartoon Network and I'm not contesting that. I don't want to make a profit from this and just hope that this doesn't get me sued... Enjoy the story.

To Defeat the Darkness, One Must Embrace the Light...

A Teen Titans Story

By Wordbearer

Raven knew she was dreaming. This was an awareness born of a thousand nightmares, horrible nightmares that would have caused her tremendous grief if she let them get to her. Fortunately, this dream didn't seem to be one of them. She walked the halls of the Great Temple, drinking in the odor of incense and letting her gaze slip over the soothing mosaics that covered the walls. Chanting echoed throughout the vast hallways as Raven passed under brazen lamps that lent an aura of sunset to the dark walls. She felt truly relaxed, letting the dream pull her on its way. She was shaken as a child's cry tore dissonantly through the air and found herself pulled into a rush of black robed monks running toward the noise. Her contentment was further shattered as she was helplessly pulled to a set of doors that she recognized. The doors blew off their hinges with terrible force and a lingering dark cloud gathered on the floor as the child's voice cried out again.

"No, I don't want to! Stop it!" Raven recognized that voice as the air cleared and the source of the cries could be seen clearly for the first time.

It was a child, a girl of six years with grey skin and dark hair. A stone blazed in her forehead as a shadow hovered above her. Though the shadow had no face it seemed to stare at the crowd of monks gathered against it with all-consuming smugness. The child was her and the shadow, her father, as she learned what the phrase Trigon's Child truly meant on that most traumatic of days.

A wave of energy consumed a vase and sent it hurl it into an elderly monk who then impacted the wall with a sickeningly wet sounding thud as her six year old self cried, "No! Don't make me hurt them." The child closed her eyes; the white glow rendering her eyelids translucent as a heavy incense burner, propelled by her power, went scything through the dispersing monks. Its curved decorations acted as barbs and were stained with blood as a trio of monks fell under the onrushing projectile. The younger Raven was crying helplessly now as objects took to the air and sleeted through the hall with deadly force. The black shadow pulsed malignantly as Raven looked on the scene, transfixed in horror.

The barrage slowed as a commanding female voice shouted, "This is not your place, Daemon, and you cannot have this child!" The high priestess of Azarath gestured and the shadow trembled and began to fade away. The halls thundered with the sound of falling metal as ebony power flowed back into young Raven and the priestess drew closer, a pair of rings blazing on her fingers. The shadow twisted away with unheard cries. The aged priestess ignored the pools of blood that stained her white robes as she knelt in front of the child and rested a hand on the dark hair and chanted under her breath. The aura of power faded completely and young Raven threw herself into her savior's arms, tears of relief streaming from her eyes. The priestess patted the child comfortingly as she took in the grim scene.

Raven couldn't take it anymore and turned to flee. The halls emptied and she was alone, but a familiar voice halted her in her tracks. Turning around, Raven frantically sought to wake up as she took in the speaker's visage. Corroded metal and protruding wires covered much of his body. The flesh that could be seen was charred and rotten, a faint odor of decay issuing forth from his body. A glowing red eye flared unnaturally as Cyborg drew closer to the paralyzed mystic and all other sounds faded into silence.

"Raven," said the calm voice as it issued from his ruined throat.

"Why did you have to kill me? I didn't do anything to hurt you..."

Raven forced herself to reply, "I didn't do it. My father did and I stopped him from killing the rest of the world." Her tone didn't quite reflect the confident nature of her statement.

"Aw, isn't that nice for the world. Problem is, it's a tad late for me and a few other people I'd like you meet." The shadows thickened and a mob of figures formed out of the empty air, a mob of the fallen and the dead. They bore every wound known to daemonkind and gazed at Raven with sullen silence that was worse than rabid hate.

She started as Cyborg's apparition spoke again, "We want to know how you're going to repay us for our painful deaths. And dying does hurt, for daemons love to play with their food..." Raven merely opened and closed her mouth in shock as the mob closed in.

She noticed claws and sharpened teeth on the features of the crowd as Cyborg spoke in a deadly serious tone, "Only thing I can figure is the classic tooth-for-a-tooth solution. We'll take our time since you have only one life to give in exchange."

His tone twisted bitterly and then fell silent as he joined the rush of tattered figures, his sonic blaster raised like a club. Looking around in fear, Raven heard her father's hateful voice, "It seems you need assistance. Access the daemon in you. As my spawn you have all the power you need to slay these pitiful remnants."

"No. You will not control me, Trigon!" Raven's voice was tinged with terror as the mob bore her down and tore at her cloak.

Trigon's voice was amused as he replied, "I afraid that death is not an option here, my daughter. Your own body will not allow it." Raven's cry of refusal was drowned in the waves of black energy that tore through the dense pack of wraiths like they were made of tissue paper. She could feel their deaths and the horrid pleasure that followed like an aftertaste as she looked up and saw Cyborg looming above her.

His voice echoed through her head, "What are you going to do now, Raven? Kill me too? Actually, let's make that for the second time." Raven could see her reflection on Cyborg's eye. She paused, horrified as a lance of darkness punched through his chest, the attack issuing forth from her body without her directing it.

Cyborg toppled and her father's last words were, "I did nothing here. That was all your power and your own motives..." Raven mercifully woke up then, as the light dimmed and her four-eyed reflection faded from sight.

Raven came to with a start, sweat beading her face despite the coolness of the cavern. She sat upright in her sleeping bag, breathing deeply to regain control of her emotions as small pebbles tinged off the walls in response to her distress. Running through her mantra several times under her breath, the half-daemon calmed and looked over at Terra. She was still asleep, curled in the fetal position under a thin blanket as she drooled in her sleep. Repressing her mild revulsion,

Raven got out of her sleeping bag, pulled on her cloak and made ready to leave the cave. Lacing up her boots tightly, she thought to her herself, "Really have to meditate, I should get a couple hours peace before Terra gets up." With that, Raven rose into the air and sought out a place to meditate.

Several hours later as the sun peaked into the canyon, Raven hovered over a stone spike with her eyes closed. She was silent and let the low melody of the canyon wash through her head. Seeking the quiet of reality that lay below all the noise, Raven was all but oblivious to the world and her head was empty of thought.

Despite her introspective focus, she didn't startle as Terra brightly called out, "Hey Raven! Want breakfast? I've gathered wood!" Conditioning after months of living with a handful of rowdy teenagers kept her from falling on her butt. Raven waited just long enough to answer in order to make her displeasure more clear.

She tersely replied to the waiting blond, "No thanks. I don't do breakfast, just so you know." Terra deflated visibly, "Oh. Okay then... Just wanted to let you know." As the hovering mystic continued to glare at her, Terra stammered, "I'll just go then. See you later..."

Raven's conscience prodded her and she sighed as the other turned to go, carefully softening her expression, "Wait Terra. I'll join you in a second." Terra brightened and Raven braced herself for a barrage of conversation.

Sitting across from Terra as she devoured her food wholesale, Raven listened with concealed disgust. Not only was the blond consuming the trail rations at an alarming rate, Terra managed to talk a mile a minute at the same time.

Chunks of food took flight as she spoke, "So then I turned down left down the ravine, this giant scorpion right on my heels. It was huge and mean-looking. No way could anything get that big without radioactivity..."

Pausing to gulp some water, she picked up again, "So just as I'm cornered, back to the wall and the monster walks under a stone bridge. One push with my powers and SPLAT! Scorpion dead and problem solved!" Terra hooded her eyes slightly as she finished and

Raven interjected drolly, "Fascinating."

Not noticing the dismissive nature of the comment, Terra replied a little more softly, "of course, two days later, those demons started showing up and it was either run or fight all the time."

Raven's expression tightened at the comment, troubled by her lingering nightmare and a sense of guilt, zoning out as the feelings rose.

"...and I had to keep hitting one over and over, it wouldn't go down. Snorting and belching smoke like a car about to explode. I finally had to bring the whole da... You listening, Raven?" The half-daemon didn't react immediately, so caught up in her thoughts was she.

The grey-skinned mystic slowly blinked a few seconds as Terra looked on concerned, "Raven? Raven!?! You still with me?"

Glaring from out of the corners of her eyes, Raven sharply replied, "Of course. You were talking about daemons, right?"

The other shrank back a little from the response, "Uh, yeah, I was. Did you guys have any problems? I couldn't seem to get away from them, they were everywhere! Then: poof. Gone in a night! Like someone told them to go to their rooms..." Raven tried to find a way to answer that question without completely leaving herself open to disconcerting questions.

She spoke in a heavy monotone as she spat up the first idea that seemed half-way relevant, "You could say that we weren't on their to-do list." She slapped herself inside for borrowing one of Beastboy's lines and a rock turned black quickly as her control slipped briefly.

Terra frowned at the response, having told enough white lies to recognize one in the making, but held her tongue. Raven wanted to keep secrets, so be it. The random energy discharge interested her too, power control being one of her core concerns.

Speaking hesitantly, "So what are you doing out here, Raven? There must be a lot of super heroing to be done if those things were as destructive as they were trying to be out here. I got the impression that they were distinctly frustrated with the changelessness of the canyons."

Raven answered, her voice relieved at the change in topic, "The Tower has been flooded with every super powered busybody on the West coast. I wasn't needed there right now."

Terra nodded in understanding, "Okay. So what were you planning to do before we had our little dust-up yesterday?"

Raven let her eyes dance over the canyon walls before speaking, "Rest. Meditate. Fast. Pull my head together; my powers don't control themselves you know." She didn't know why she had spoken so frankly to this relative stranger, but her instincts said to and Raven made it a point to go with her instincts, her human ones at any rate.

Terra's lit up with interest and she gushed out her next thought, "Really? That's great! I don't mean in that your powers don't control themselves, but that you know how to do it... Um, I'm ashamed to admit to it, but my abilities aren't exactly... always... stable either." Raven smirked as her previous guess was proven true.

Terra rushed on, "If you can spare anytime from your own work I would appreciate any comments you could give on the topic?" The blonde's voice bled with pathetic neediness and Raven's first response was to cut her down with a scornful reply.

Something kept the comment from passing her lips and she shook her head as she formulated a different response in its place, "Okay, Terra I'll make you a deal."

Terra's eyes locked onto Raven's and the mystic lowered her hood to make sure Terra understood everything that she was about to say. "You can stay in this cave with me while I'm here this week. In return, you let me meditate, being quiet and not disturbing me until mid-afternoon. That means no breakfast calls." Raven pointedly tipped her head toward the remains of the meal and Terra blushed in embarrassment, though whether this was because of her gluttony or loud greeting earlier was anyone's guess.

Continuing in the same even tone the half-daemon said, "Then the rest of the day I'd be willing to spend with you and help you out with your needs until we stop for dinner and sleep. Clear enough?"

Terra reflected a moment and said cautiously, "That sounds okay... Hey. Wait a second. I was here first, why do you get to tell me that it's an honor for me to stay? I should be the one extending the invitation!"

Raven's response was curt, "Don't push it. I normally don't share my living space with others, let alone complete strangers. I can always leave."

Holding her hands up placatingly, Terra exclaimed, "Hold on a second, no need to get like that! Geez, you have quite a temper."

Raven merely gazed at Terra and a silence bloomed between them, causing the shorter blond girl to turn away in embarrassment.

Raven broke the silence herself, "What exactly can you do with your powers that you say aren't 'exactly... always... stable'?"

Terra seized the question, "I move rocks, dirt, stone, stuff like that. Some egghead that I spoke to once said I had lithokinesis, whatever that means... Hopefully it isn't a rash of some kind."

Raven rolled her eyes at the other in contempt, "No it isn't a rash. The word is Latin, litho means rock and kinesis means..." As she got into the explanation, the mystic felt her unease retract and let the surprisingly good feeling wash over her. As the two spoke in the darkness of the cave, the sun slipped into its shadowed confines.

So, you made it down here. What do you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a review if you see fit and tell me what the good, the bad and the ugly are in here. Thank you for your time.


	4. When the Dogs Withdraw, the Cats Return

Chapter four inbound! I'm trying some new character dialog/interactions, so bear with me... Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to someone connected with Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging that person! I don't intend to make any money from this and just hope that this doesn't get me sued... Okay, straight to story now for good or ill. Enjoy.

When the Dogs Withdraw, the Cats Return

By Wordbearer

Raven hugged the mountain as she flew towards the coast, the sun lightening the dark blue of her cloak. Terra followed behind her, perched on a chunk of stone for dear life as she guided her mount through sheer will. Raven didn't speak as Jump City came into view, the ruined vista alive with cranes and other repair equipment. Terra's eyes widened in reflexive shock at the blatant destruction and her stone jittered in midair as her control faltered.

She thought, "If this is what you get when you're not on a demon's to-do list, I'd hate to be on it." Terra looked toward Raven, who seemingly wasn't phased by the view and had veered off toward Titans Island. The island was also alive with repair crews who were erecting a framework to restore the lost branch of the iconic building. The refugee structures were being dismantled, crowds of people being guided to the island's docks and shuttled back to the mainland. The blond saw that she was falling behind her guide and hurried to catch up as Raven dropped to the ground.

Raven spent a few seconds catching her breath as she hit the ground in front of the Tower, a white afterglow emanating from her eyes. Prolonged levitation was more draining than she let on and she was mentally exhausted, not the kind of state she wanted to be in when she returned to the Tower after her prolonged absence. A soft thud announced Terra's arrival as her stone mount rolled on its base and came to rest.

Terra dismounted with a small hop and announced as she closed with the petite half-daemon mystic, "Nice place you have here. I can see that you have a great deal going on. Though the view leaves something to be desired..."

Terra gestured at the desolate vista of the city and the accompanying repairs prompting Raven to slowly turn her head and lock a tight gaze on the blond from the shadows of her hood, "Deal with it. You asked to come along and don't have to be here if this all depresses you." Her voice was tightly controlled, the talkative Terra managing to rub the wrong nerves despite a week of dealing with Raven's sensitivities more or less successfully.

Terra backpedaled, "Of course it doesn't bother me. Just commenting, had a slightly different mental picture of the place... Ha... Are we going in?" Raven's look relented and she walked up a well-beaten path to the Tower's double doors, Terra close behind.

Entering her private password, Raven waited a second as the door silently opened and enjoyed the brief pleasure of the tower's clean odor as she took in the thankfully empty entry hall. Terra brushed passed her, mouth open in awe and to Raven's annoyance, dropped her filthy backpack on the tile. Raven was about to comment when an elevator opened and the inevitable welcome wagon emerged.

Beastboy and Starfire made a beeline for the dark mystic, ignoring the comparatively ragged Terra for the moment. "Friend Raven, it is a pleasure to see you again! How was your alone time?"

Before she could respond, Beastboy added his two cents, "Yeah. Things haven't been the same without you. Sure we had this mob of help, but they were all going off on different missions and disappearing at odd hours and, and... I just missed you, Raven!" Beastboy shapeshifted into an unnaturally, cute kitten and jumped into Raven's arms. She reflexively caught him. Realizing she was clutching a purring ball of green-furred cuteness, Raven dropped Beastboy and stepped back as he changed back into his normal form, looking up at Raven with a hurt look. Starfire, with some of her rarely displayed intelligence, quickly cut off any comment by pointing at Terra who was looking at the display in unease.

The red-head interjected, "Who is this person? Is she lost?"

Raven pulled her cloak around her nervously and replied, "Starfire, Beastboy, this is Terra. Terra, this is, Starfire and Beastboy. Found her on my 'week break' and she asked to follow me here. I agreed."

She shrugged slightly and Starfire jumped into the breech, "Oh, this is glorious! Raven has made a new friend and brought her here for us to meet as well! You must tell us how this came about."

At Starfire's exuberant reaction, Terra shot an alarmed look at Raven. She smiled a brittle smile and spoke for the first time, "Pleasure to meet you all. I just met Raven at the canyon and she let me hang out with her while she was there... Long story short, I wanted to meet the rest of you guys and see how you fared through the chaos." During this little speech, Beastboy looked away from his one-sided staring match with Raven and gave Terra the once over. Having seen the likes of Wonder Girl, Supergirl and Black Canary, he was not impressed by the blonde's minimalist physique.

The mood momentarily darkened and a pause lingered, but Starfire spoke again to break the silence, "Things have been quite busy here. We have been aiding people, doing cleanup, and helping to repair the damage inflicted by the malthorp'zyniec horde that ravaged this area while I was gone. We have also been hosting a glorious meeting of many super humanly gifted people." Stafire's eyes glittered intensely at the memories.

"That meeting has recently broken up and they have all returned to their normal realm of operations. Tell me, Terra. What can you do that is special?"

Starfire's barrage of comments left Terra mentally reeling after a week of dealing with the less than profusely verbose Raven, but she managed to get out an answer, "I, uh, move rocks, dirt, mud with my mind. Lithokinesis it's called." Terra looked over at Raven for approval, but all the half-daemon did was raise an unseen eyebrow in the shadows of her hood.

Beastboy spoke up again at this point, "Right. So why did Raven let you follow you follow her home? She's not the most social of people."

"Well, we had a brawl, than we shared a cave for a week and she helped me with my powers, to control them more steadily I mean. Guess that she felt that she could trust me?" Terra shrugged, Beastboy dashed unbelieving looks at Raven, and Starfire had a reflective look on her face as they digested this information.

Starfire thought to herself, "Raven fighting, sharing a room, and inviting people back to our home? Something has indeed changed with you Raven..."

Beastboy pointed an accusing finger at Raven and launched into one of his trademarked comedic tirades, "Okay, who are you? Whoever you are, you're not Raven! Not by a long-shot!"

Raven grunted in annoyance and cuttingly remarked, "You're right Beastboy. I'm not who I appear to be. I'm a shapeshifting mutant clone that has killed Raven and taken her place."

Beastboy was red in the face as he replied, "Oh, yeah. That's hilarious, Raven. I try to lighten the mood and you go and get all sarcastic on me! Can't you take a joke for once?"

"Tell me a joke and I'll take it. I have yet to see one come out of your mouth that was marginally amusing."

Terra and Starfire, temporarily forgotten, watched the verbal fireworks. Terra winced as another of Raven's one liners hit home and thought, "Note to self: never get on her bad side if I value my self-esteem."

Starfire jogged the blond out of her trance by asking, "New friend Terra, would you like to have your gear brought to a room for safekeeping?"

"Uh, yeah. That would be great." She looked down where the pack had left dirt stains on the tile, and blushed.

A thought occurred to her and she gestured at the arguing pair as she asked, "Should we leave them like this? Things are getting heated." Raven was showing signs of irritation now, sending sparks of black energy arching through her form. Beastboy was reduced to mimicry, having run out of clever comments.

Raven said tightly, "This is a stupid argument."

"_This is a stupid argument_," the green youth mocked.

Raven looked put out, "You're not helping your point, whatever that nebulous goal happens to be."

"_You're not helping your point, whatever that nebu... nebulous goal happ..." _The effectiveness of his reply was reduced by his stammering.

Starfire tried to hide her expression, but amusement bubbled in her eyes, "They often engage in such seeming hostilities. This behavior distressed me at first, but it seems to be their preferred means of communication. It is harmless."

Terra looked at her sidelong as a lightbulb popped after glowing black from a rogue discharge of energy in its socket, "If you say so..."

Guessing the source of the Terra's unease, Starfire added, "They will not intentionally hurt one another and Raven is very conscientious about repairing what she doesn't mean to break, living or otherwise."

"Yeah, I noticed. After our dust up, she healed me while I was unconscious."

Starfire picked up Terra's backpack and was floating toward the elevator as she asked, "How did this fight occur? It is not like Raven to attack people for no..."

Starfire was interrupted as the elevator opened and Robin barreled out shouting, "Titans trouble! Starfire, Beastboy, let's..."

He ground to a halt as he took in the scene and began again, "Oh, Raven's back. Who are you?"

He quirked an eyebrow at Terra and Starfire answered, "This is our new friend Terra who Raven met while on her week off. She can move rocks with her mind. She arrived with Raven a few minutes ago and..."

Cutting her off, he interjected "I get the picture, Starfire. Are you up to coming with us, Terra?" Robin had grown used to including random super heroes in his forays and accepted Terra's involvement automatically.

Terra answered uncertainly, "Sure. Why not?"

Robin nodded agreeably, "Good enough, let's go."

Raven, fully disengaged with her argument and calm again, cut in with a comment, "What's the problem this time?"

Beastboy, still caught up in their argument mimicked, "_What's the problem this_..." He trailed off as he was the target of a group look.

Ignoring Beastboy's sheepish foot shuffling and answering the cloaked mystic's query, Robin said, "Slade. He and his minions are raiding a supply depot. We have to stop him now."

Raven couldn't quite hold her comment in, "Great. The one human being on this planet we wouldn't mind seeing dead and he's looting supplies. Glad to know some people never change their ways."

Robin looked at her sidelong and spoke as he walked determinedly out the door, "Be that as it may, he's a criminal and we're going to bring him down. Move out!"

The others rapidly left the room leaving Terra and Raven alone. Terra asked, "Am I up to this? How tough is this Slade guy anyway?"

Raven's response was blunt, "You should do fine. Robin will probably want Slade all to himself and Slade's robots are no challenge when you get down to it. Consider it an easy audition." The thin blond was unnerved by the implication that she had to pass some sort of test. Unable to tell Raven's mood from her voice, Terra just stared at the half-daemon's cloaked back a few seconds before hurrying after her and the rest of the Titans.

Slade was nowhere to be seen as the Titans descended from above. Beastboy dropped into the fray as starbolts rained onto the ground claiming several black clad robotic victims. Raven loosed Robin from a travel bubble like a ballistic missile and the boldly colored teen turned into a whirlwind of destruction as he extended his staff, whirling and striking like a contained tornado. Raven hung back, eyes glowing white as she loosed a flood of projectiles. Terra was less cautious, turning her landing into an assault as her mount crushed a robot beneath it. She gestured expressively and the ground swallowed up a pair of others who were manhandling a box of supplies. A pair of arms clutched her from behind and Terra screamed as a beam of ebony light ripped through where she had been standing and the unknown rescuer rolled to the side, taking her with him. That person turned out to be Robin, who back flipped and used the force of his jump to tear through a laser wielding foe like tissue paper. He mouthed 'watch yourself' at a wide-eyed Terra who turned red in embarrassment before turning back to the fray. Beastboy was an anchor, raging in gorilla form as Raven and Starfire rained energy at his opponents. The hum of emerald starbolts contrasted with the silent precise lethality of Raven's black energy attacks. Raven claimed a kill with every strike, but Starfire knocked at least four from their feet as her bolts explosively splattered the ground with force. An enduring beam of destruction cut a swath through the melee as a robot fired a thermal-cannon through the supply depot's window. The titans scattered only for Beastboy and Raven to be winged by the blast and thrown to the ground.

Terra concentrated and tore a giant chunk of cement from a ruined building, intending to hurl it at the weapon wielder with crushing force when a thought made her pause.

"Only throw what you need to throw, to solve the problem. Big objects are harder to aim and thus less likely to help you when you miss," Raven had admonished. Terra reluctantly dropped the larger piece for a more modest piece of concrete that she flung and plastered the guilty party as its weapon glowed green. The charged weapon discharged into the air and demolished a crumbling store front. The conflict continued as the robots fought to the death.

An observer watched the scene below. This observer didn't seem quite real, the daylight streaming through his body as if it were translucent in places. He was tall and slender, clad in a dark robe. The most distinctive thing about him was the glasslike dome that enclosed his exposed brain, though the pair of midnight black eyes which looked like voids in his face, came close.

He whispered, "So dark child, I find you here and now, playing the heroine in a land ravaged by your father's evil. Let's move into the end game so that I may move onto bigger and better things." He concentrated and a sliver of stone hovered over his ghost-like palm like a humming bird. The wind stirred his long white hair and he smiled thinly as he gazed at Raven.

She got to her feet and pulled a robot off of Beastboy and slammed it against the ground. "So it as it goes, so shall it end." The phrase was whispered quietly, but what could be seen of his translucent face tightened with great emotion.

With these words, the stone sliver blurred as it spun and darted at Raven's face. The blue clad girl heard it coming and turned, but the projectile still struck its target guided by the stranger's will. Raven gasped as it hit her forehead and her neck snapped back in reflexive shock. A crack could be heard and she moaned in pain as an amorphous wave of darkness flowed out of her form to engulf and destroy another robot. The chakra in her forehead bled light from the minute network of cracks that violated its curved form. She bent over and rested her palms on the ground, breathing heavily. Robin landed nearby to protect his stricken teammate. Her body was engulfed in shadow and she teleported away from the battle and back to Titans Tower. The stranger took his leave as well, his shadowy presence fading completely as he departed and left the Titans to their fight.

So you made it down here. What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Well, leave a review if you see fit and tell me what's wrong with this thing Thank you for time. I hope you enjoyed this.


	5. A Matter of Self Control

Okay, Chapter 5. I left a cliffhanger in place, last time and for that, I am a morally reprehensible being. But, here is the next chapter and it's a doozy (lengthwise anyway, I edited this chapter for errors at last). I'll shut up and leave you with the disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to someone at Cartoon Network (Who is it? I would like to know…) and I have no intent of challenging that person. I don't seek a profit from this and just hope this doesn't get me sued… Please enjoy!

A Matter of Self-Control

By Wordbearer

Robin breathed heavily as he looked at the spot where Raven had vanished in a flash of black light. Terra put paid to the last robot with a hard driven shard of rock. It stood a moment before toppling and then silence fell.

"Everyone ok?" Robin asked and the group nodded agreement.

Starfire asked worriedly, "What happened to Raven? Her departure has left me quite worried. Was she injured by Slade's mechanical compatriots?"

Robin replied, "I don't think so, Star. She was fine one second and gone another. Beastboy, you were closest to her at the time. Did you see what happened?"

The green youth shock his head emphatically, "No way. I was under a dog pile of Slade's rockem-sockem robots at the time. A little distracted, you might say."

Terra looked from Titan to Titan and inquired, "Where would Raven go? I never saw her do that disappearing trick the whole week I was with her in the canyon. Is she okay?"

Robin turned toward the blond and said, "We don't know, Raven usually doesn't teleport around unless it's urgent. That's why we're worried. If she felt she had to leave the battlefield NOW, it must have been moderately serious."

In a tone that was a mix of fear and admiration, Starfire added, "Yes, friend Raven doesn't leave before a fight is done! She must be hurt or injured."

Beastboy, looking mildly put, out by all this talk interjected, "Let's go home. If she's not there, we can look up her communicator frequency. All this fighting is making me hungry…"

Robin sighed and spoke, "Very well. Terra, since Raven left you will provide me with transport back to the tower. Titans move out!" The skinny blond tore a chunk of concrete large enough for the two of them from the street and mounted it. Robin leapt on behind her while the remaining Titans took up formation behind them and they took to the air.

As they passed over the ruined city leaving the warehouse with its new addition of smashed robots behind, Robin shouted over the low whistle of wind, "Nice job today! You were a big help."

Keeping her eyes carefully on her target, Terra responded, "Thanks, you did have to bail me out there a second though…"

Robin replied, "No big deal. That's what teammates do for one another."

Her eyes widened involuntarily and she stammered back, "Really, thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't expecting an invitation though on my first day, just planning to visit…"

Robin grinned to himself as he spoke, "No need to be humble. It was an honestly good effort there. Touch sloppy, but overall impressive." Terra was about to respond when she cleared a building and Titans' island came into view. Something was wrong. A black mist engulfed its rocky shores despite the comparative heat of the day. The tower seemed distorted somehow as well, its dimensions warped slightly out of true alignment. The group did a double take at the strange spectacle. Robin clutched his mount as Terra's control momentarily faltered.

She muttered in disbelief, "If that's normal around here, I really don't want to hang around."

Her eyes blazing with apprehension, Starfire exclaimed, "I may be new to this world, but this is not a normal event! We must hurry there and discover the reason for this occurrence."

Robin clutched his perch precariously as he spoke, "Let's check it out. Be on your guard and let's make this quick. We still have to find Raven after all." Terra nodded and set her stone mount in motion once more, Starfire quickly following. Beastboy launched from a flag pole where he had rested briefly and hurried after, his feelings masked by his black avian eyes. As they passed into the air above the island, they felt a brief chill and nausea rippled through their stomachs. The sky seemed to darken as they landed and headed up to the tower. A voice halted them in their tracks.  
"Welcome home, Titans. I trust that you find this all very disturbing." They spun around, Robin reflexively readying a birdarang. What they saw stopped them in their tracks. The voice emanated from a tall, thin figure with a glass enclosed brain. The boy wonder demanded of the red-skinned stranger.

"Who are you and what do know of this?"

The other was unfazed by his interrogator's aggressive tone and merely raised an eyebrow in response, "Come now. Is that a way to treat someone who wants to help you with a problem? Come on; let us all be courteous here…" Amusement seemed to dance in his lightless eyes a moment.

Visibly calming himself, Robin asked again, "What do you know of this?" "That's more like it. This lovely change of scene is the work of someone very near and dear to all your hearts." He spoke and gestured at the now surreal island which was taking on strange sullen hues and burbling like an infant in its sleep.

Confusion gathered in the group's eyes and the stranger continued, "She is in some distress right now. I think she is having a little trouble dealing with the world in light of her recent injuries."

The first to speak was Beastboy, who muttered in a low tone, "Raven."

More loudly he asked, "Where is she and what did you do her? I want answers! Who are you?" Anger crackled in his tone, but the stranger ignored it.

"She's in the Tower, in her room and what is happening to her is merely a consequence of her mixed heritage. As to my name, you may call me Psimon but you will call me your god before this affair is finished." A shock wave engulfed the group and threw them back as a storm ignited around the eerie being. Robin hurled a birdarang at Psimon, but he halted it inches from his face with a gesture and it fell to the ground. The Titans hit the ground and it turned an ugly purple-blue like an old bruise. The island trembled and a hail of small rocks turned black and flung themselves away from the Tower seemingly of their own accord.

Psimon spoke again, "I would get moving, Titans. You don't have all day. The longer this goes on the worse the disruptions will get. I'll depart now to reduce the number of distractions you must face in this ordeal. A pleasure to meet you all."

Psimon began to fade as he spoke, his braincase glinting in an errant sunbeam, "Oh, Terra. Do watch your control. This island is unstable enough as is…" Terra's eyes glowed gold and she flung a rock at the vanishing figure, but the rock merely passed through him and he laughed cruelly. When he was gone, the three veteran Titans' looked at one another and ran to the tower. Terra stood still a moment.

She thought, "Am I the only one freaked out beyond belief by this situation?" A crazed cackle issuing from an unseen mouth seemed to answer her. She fled toward the tower, catching up with the others as the double doors opened. The interior of the entry hall seemed normal enough, but the foursome remained close together as they made their way to the elevator which opened normally.

Terra asked uncertainly, "Where do we go? Where would Raven go if something was wrong?"

"Her room," the other three responded. Robin punched in the basement button.

Terra spoke, "Raven's room is in the basement. Why would I expect anything else?"

Immediately she regretted saying it, but Beastboy picked up the answer, trying to lighten the mood, "That's her all right. A regular doom and gloom lover. Basement isn't her normal place to crash, but she took up residence when the tower turned into an upside down 'L'." Somehow the clearly inappropriate comment broke the dark mood that and Starfire grinned.

Robin muttered, "Almost there, come on. Can't this thing go any faster…" Just then the lights went out and the tower groaned as it was subjected to the wrenching effects of non-Newtonian physics. The walls twisted and the elevator screeched to a halt.

Robin looked at the emergency position indicator light and shouted, "Starfire! We're close enough. Blast us an exit in that corner and we'll be in the basement." The others crowded into the opposite corner as the alien female's eyes glowed green in the dark to indicate her position. An orb of light glowed briefly and a hum rose before a thunderous boom echoed in the cramped elevator. A molten hole glowed sullenly in the gloom. Starfire was the first to drop into the corridor, a glowing palm held aloft like a torch. Robin and Beastboy quickly followed and took up positions on either side. Terra came last, grunting as she pulled herself through the breach. She looked around in alarm at the stygian darkness of the corridor, her blue eyes opened wide.

Beastboy spoke up, "Okay, where do we go from here? I haven't been here in the dark before…"

Robin spoke authoritatively, ignoring the groans of the tower's warping superstructure, "All these corridors eventually run into the main chamber. When we get there we should be able to find where Raven is holing up. I can't find a more direct route at the present time, without access to the tower's computers. Starfire. You have the light. You lead." She nodded and moved forward.

The odd noises being made by the building got on their nerves and stoked their fear. Beastboy continually shapeshifted as they went, going from mouse to owl to gorilla as he reacted to each noise and sought to be in the optimum form to deal with whatever came out of the omnipresent shadows. Nothing came, but that didn't keep them from imagining a host of threats. The first hazard caught them by surprise. Terra was hugging a wall when she fell into a glistening hole in the floor. She sunk up to her chest before she caught herself with her arms and frantically struggled against the suction of the black pool. Robin was there in a second, planting his feet and trying to pull her out. The dark pool began to spin and shrink, adding urgency to his efforts. He grabbed her by the arms and heaved her out just as the pool vanished.

They both were breathing heavyily, Starfire looked on with concern and Beastboy warned, "Watch your step. Floor is less solid than it appears." Robin and Terra looked at him strangely, but nodded agreement. Starfire, looked out into the darkness and suddenly spotted the next threat.

She exclaimed with disbelief in her voice, "A flock of birds coming down the corridor at us despite the fact that we are indoors…"

Terra argued, "No way. How could birds get in here? We're underground for…" She shut up as the gleaming red eyes appeared at the end of the corridor. An airborne mass of beasts jinked its way toward them. The crow-like avians slashed and pecked at the Titans who dropped to the ground to protect their eyes. The attack was over as quickly as it had begun, the flock flying further down the corridor and disappearing around the corner.

Robin spoke encouragingly, "Everyone ok?"

A chorus of voices answered his question in the positive and he continued, "In that case, we keep moving. Everyone keep alert and keep your eyes open. We're almost at the main room and there's no way that we can know what we will face."

Starfire spoke softly as she held her glowing hand aloft like a torch again, "I did not realize that friend Raven had such a darkly creative… imagination?" Her statement trailed off into a question as she caught sight of the basement's main chamber. It crawled with motion, the pale green glow from Starfire's hand staining the ebony forms of the horrors inside. Four-eyed birds glared from atop stacked crates and deformed infantile shapes dragged themselves painfully across the floor, a multitude of eyes rolling blindly from every surface of their bodies. A scintillating tide of insects clustered in one corner, heaving with peristaltic life as they flowed over one another. Discharges of black energy flashed from wall to wall, sending objects spiraling slowly through the air. Starfire's light flickered suddenly in reflection of her shock as the scene hit home.

Robin looked wide eyed, "Well, this unexpected." They could still see the glow of red eyes as the apparitions continued to ignore the Titans.

Starfire had recovered by now and asked, "Is that the room we have to cross? Please do not tell me that it is."

Robin took charge, "We're going to have to cross this chamber and find Raven to stop this chaos if we take Psimon by his word. Keep on your toes, these creatures haven't noticed us yet but that doesn't mean they won't."

Terra thought to herself, "Great, room full of horrors but this island is so unstable, that I can't use my powers without fear that I'll bring the tunnel down on us." The tunnel trembled in response to another surge of energy as the tower shook above them, underscoring her concern. The Titans broke from the passage they were sheltering in and rushed for the other side. Beastboy trod on one of the twisted infant-forms and it released a harsh wail before fading into a thick black mist which sank into the floor. The room instantly galvanized and descended on the foursome. A chittering, screeching cacophony filled the room as the black horrors flowed into one another and surrounded the group as a dark coruscating blob. The Titans continued for the opposite hallway only for a wall of black energy to cut them off. Light bloomed as Starfire hurled starbolts at the energy shield to no effect. Robin concentrated his attacks on the blob which threatened to consume them, explosive disks illuminating its menacing bulk in brief flares. Beastboy charged the shadow in rhino-form only to disappear into it like a penny in a pool of molten lead. His cries could be faintly heard as if he were light-years away. Terra felt afraid and helpless and huddled near Starfire. The blob was terrible in its silent presence, only detectable in brief flashes of light.  
The scene was grim when the chaos paused, an indrawn breath stilling the world. The blob melted and scattered to the far corners of the room like a pack of chastened dogs as something arose from the floor and brought the light of a star with it. A pillar of light passed from floor to ceiling, blinding to their sensitized eyes. As the Titans calmed and warily glanced at the phenomenon, it shrank and stabilized, taking on a familiar visage.

"Raven," breathed Terra softly. The pillar of light had turned into a petite, cloaked form. A pair of alert eyes glanced from the shadows of the hood in a state of inscrutable calm. It had Raven's features, but they were drawn in like hurried pencil sketches, vague and drawn in shades of black, gray and white.

Robin said, "Raven. I'm confused. What's going on here?" Raven ignored Robin's demand as she bent over the injured Beastboy, and healed the many slight cuts which left his uniform looking he had been chewed by rats.

She turned to Robin without seeming to move, she spoke in a voice that echoed slightly, "All these problems afflicting the island are an accident. This… disturbance is a reflection of my mind and powers as they leak into the world around me without my control." Beastboy stirred and rose, jolting slightly as he caught the apparition's visage.

He mumbled slightly, "Wha? Raven… What's going on?"

Starfire asked with concern bleeding through her tone, "Raven, please tell us why the island is making strange noises, spawning monstrous infants, and you look like a character from a 'Charlie Chaplin' movie? The apparition blurred and refocused in a kneeling position a few meters away.

It cried out suddenly in a high voice, "I'm sorry! I won't do it again. I just let go for a second. Please I'll fix…" The Titans, blinked in confusion. The image reformed in a standing position, answering Starfire's question as if nothing had happened.

"This is just an aspect of my mind, blurring into the world at random. This is not me. Its just part of my spirit set adrift from my body."

Robin asked insistently, "What situation? How can we help to fix this? Now is not the time for your secrets…" Raven's form looked about ready to answer, but her lips moved silently and her white glowing form dissolved into a nest of randomly moving pillars of light. The walls began to take on an aspect of flensed meat in patches as the sickly odor of incense filled the air. Red eyes glared from the darkness and drew closer as Raven's image reformed. She silently muttered her mantra with her eyes tightly closed.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and spoke, "We don't have time for your game of twenty questions. The longer my abilities are out of control the more likely I'll start tearing rifts open. Then the daemons will come back."

Starfire exclaimed worriedly, "But friend Raven, we do not know why this is happening or how we can fix it. You must tell us!"

Raven's features mustered a look of irritation and she said tersely, "My chakra is broken and without it I can't control my senses properly. The result is the chaos you see around you." Raven's light dimmed and the dark apparitions which had been huddling fearfully in the corner now stalked forward aggressively.

Raven's apparition asserted, "The only way to stop this chaos is to kill me or repair my chakra, which is impossible." Looks of dismay bloomed on everyone's faces and a chorus of denial filled the air, competing with the moan of the encroaching tide of black horrors.

"Raven…"

"But there must…"

"Surely it is not that bad!"

Only Terra didn't speak, a reflective look on her face. Raven cut off their complaints and grew angry for the first time, "Don't be stupid. For once listen to what I say and do it. I'll clear a way so that you can do what needs to be done."

Terra opened her mouth to speak but Raven interupted, "Not you too. Just go." A blurry sketch of a glowing arm emerged from the cloak and the ebony creatures shifted, the energy field ahead blinking out and a barrier forming between Raven's apparition and the Titans. She seemed visibly drained, only her eyes retaining a bright glow as a tide of chittering horrors surrounded her in hungry anticipation, waiting for the last of her light to die. The others reluctantly moved on, but Beastboy pounded on the barrier in frustration. Raven took her steady gaze away from the dark horrors which surrounded her and looked at him mutely.

Words echoed in his mind as she was surrounded, "Just go Beastboy. This is nothing that I haven't endured before a thousand times. I don't need you now and I don't need you ever to handle my darkness. Don't hang around and force me to heal you again…" Beastboy tried to read an emotional undertone from the speech and failed. He finally turned and followed the green glare of Starfire's light. The white glow flickered and died as Raven's ghosts engulfed her illusionary form.  
The rest of the group clustered around Raven's door, Beastboy laughed nervously and said, "So. Are we going to go in? This is getting kind of awkward."

Robin spoke bluntly, "What are going to do once we go in there though? That's the problem. Are we really going to kill Raven?"

"We must not. It would be wrong and her chakra must be replaceable somehow…" Starfire insisted.

Robin spoke, "Raven's never told us where she got her chakra before or why. All I know is that she wasn't local before she contacted me. No telling where a replacement chakra could be found in time if the consequences are as grave as she says they'll be…"

Gathering her nerve, Terra spoke loudly and quickly to cover her nervousness, "If her chakra is that stone thing glued to her forehead, I should be able to fix it. It's just a rock after all. Isn't it?" The others looked at her curiously, hope blazing in Beastboy's and Starfire's eyes.

Robin spoke slowly in response, "It is that stone in her forehead though I don't know if it's just a rock. But you should know your own powers. If this fails though, we bring Raven down in preparation for complying with her request. I honestly don't want to meet those daemon things again…" Everyone nodded emphatically. Beastboy shifted into tiger form and light glowed from the other's signature weapons and abilities.

Robin swallowed lightly, a slight concession to his nervousness and said one last thing before opening the door, "Be ready for anything. Titans go!" The interior of Raven's basement room was surprisingly calm. Crates and barrels lay scattered over the floor, their contents making the footing treacherous. Sparks danced through the air from broken lights and equipment. It was only when they saw Raven that they saw what was truly wrong. Unlike the white apparition that bore her likeness earlier, this Raven was entirely solid. Raven hovered over the cracked floor, random bursts of ebony energy spurting from her body.

Her face was tensed with pain and she chanted insistently under her breath, "Azarath. Medrion. Zinthos. Azarath. Medrion. Zinthos. Azarath…" She trembled suddenly, red glaring from her eyes. A pillar of darkness geysered out of her body, causing her blue cloak to lift up with the surge. The pillar of power expanded and dissipated, making the Titans nauseous as it passed through them. Raven resumed her chant mindlessly.

Robin turned green a moment and asked behind his gloved hand, "Terra, whatever you are going to do, do it now please."

Terra nodded a touch nervously, sick herself and spoke, "Right… I can do this easy."

As her hands took on a golden glow, Starfire helpfully chimed in, "You must succeed, friend Terra. Raven is depending on you!" Terra froze, feet planted and hands outstretched toward Raven.

She muttered as her eyes glowed gold, "Right. No pressure here. Just focus on the rock…" Raven's chant faltered as the chakra in the center of her forehead took on the same glow as Terra's eyes. Terra focused, clinching her fists and Raven dropped to the ground. The cracked stone began to heal slowly, the smallest faults on its surface flowing together. The room began to groan as if great forces were coming to bear on its walls. Terra found the task harder now as something pushed against her control, some cracks widening as others closed. Beastboy looked at Raven's slumped form worriedly when it moved suddenly. Raven lifted into the air, back arched and the golden glowing chakra rent with red cracks. Terra tried to ignore the spectacle and focused on the chakra, sweat dampening her hair. The smaller cracks were all closed now and only the largest presenting crimson rifts on its surface. Raven's wildly fluttering cloak dropped and lengthened slightly, shielding her body from view. A quiet wail bled past her lips and unnerved the watching trio of Titans. Terra was oblivious; her will consumed with the task of collapsing the last crack.

A mocking voice spoke in her head, "How sweet. The little human is trying to help out my daughter by healing her crutch. How typical of you mortals."

Terra prayed to herself that the last crack was closing as the voice spoke again, "You'll never succeed. Raven herself could not do this task."

Terra grunted to herself as the crack narrowed towards nothingness and answered the mocking voice, "I don't know what you are or what your point is, but I'm going to try. So… just…. shut… up." The Titans looked at Terra strangely as she apparently spoke to herself.

The voice was angry now and rich with arrogance, "No human tells Trigon what to do. I could flay the soul from your…" The voice was silenced and the last crack healed. Raven fell to her knees, the wail fading into silence.

Robin darted over to Raven and grabbed her pulse, "She's alive, but our problem is apparently not solved." The walls still groaned and the scratch of shadowy claws could be heard from the door. When Raven came to slowly, her eyes tightly shut as if they pained her. Robin backed off as she sent an uncertain look his way, not seeming to recognize him.

Her voice was thick with confusion as she spoke, "Everything isn't singing anymore… Why has the world stopped singing?"

Beastboy looked at her blankly and said nothing as she continued, "Something was wrong and I decided to meditate and then…"

Her eyes narrowed as she realized something, "What are you doing down here? I was alone when started. Do you think you can come in here just because I'm not conscious? I need to be alone to control my powers and prevent them from causing havoc."

Terra looked hurt and Beastboy added heatedly, "Yeah, about that, Raven. Your magic 'chakra' thing apparently got broken last battle and your powers leaked all over the island causing havoc despite your oh so helpful meditation. You told us this yourself. Then, Terra here fixed the thing, bringing you around, though perhaps you would have been better company asleep."

Raven glared at Beastboy in scornful disbelief, "That's utter nonsense. The exact thing I'd expect when you open your mouth. You're just not worth the time it takes to…" Raven trailed off as she took in the disheveled state of the room and gestured experimentally at a crate. Much to her concealed surprise, the box failed to be moved by her will.

Robin added, "Beastboy is telling the truth, Raven. Things are really going oddly on the island and it seems to be connected with you. You must not remember it." Raven blinked and spoke more evenly as she regained control over her emotions. She conceded the point.

"Okay. I can accept that. Everyone get down as I try something. If you're right you should avoid the worst of the side effects."

Starfire asked, "What are you going to, Raven?"

Raven said, "Recall my power. It must be in use elsewhere if I can't call it up. Besides I'm not getting a good feeling from the rest of the island…" Raven pulled herself to her feet and stepped back, slipping her hood over her head in a reflexive gesture. She hadn't quite told the truth in that last comment; the feeling about the island was not so much bad as horribly familiar and comforting to her daemonic leanings. This was not a feeling the dark mystic wished to indulge in and she muttered her mantra with closed eyes.

"Azarath. Medrion." The power saturating the island stirred in response to her petition. It began to flow toward her, sluggishly at first and then more quickly. She tensed subtly, previous experience telling her this would not be fun on any level she knew about.

"Zinthos." Everything snapped at once, torrents of dark energy rushing towards her body from all directions. Most of it streamed from the ceiling above her and she barely kept her feet as shock passed through system at the raw influx of power. A few streamers of dark power passed up from below, causing nausea in the Titans whenever they bisected one of these beams. She was blind, deaf, and dumb as she absorbed the entire torrent, but still remained conscious. The tower ceased groaning and the cry of unseen horrors faded away as her power was reclaimed by the dark mystic. The Titan's clamored to their feet while Raven absorbed the implications of the almost overwhelming energy recall.

Softly she whispered, "Wow. Beastboy was right for once. Let's call the reality police."

Beastboy's indignant cry was slightly lessened by his visible nausea, "Of course, I was right! I'm always right even if I exaggerate a little."

Raven turned to Terra, "If he was right about your helping me, than we should talk later." Terra's face held a thousand questions, but she held her tongue with a patience that the half-daemon hadn't seen before.

Robin helped Starfire to her feet and added, "We should go upstairs. It may be just me, but I don't want to be here antoher second if I can avoid it." He walked out and everyone simply followed Raven content to bring the rear.

Robin turned to Terra, "I think we may just have a place for you for you on the team, Terra. You interested?" Terra's enthusiastic response was lost as the group passed around the corner. Starfire's receding light left the now normal hall in darkness.

Okay so you made it down here. Kudos to you brave people! What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a review if you see fit and tell me what you think. Thank you for your time and I hope that this chapter could amuse… One more chapter to go.


	6. To Know the Name of Your Enemy

Took me three weeks by my count, but here is chapter 6 of my Ravencentric pseudo epic. Anyone ever hear of the quote, "If a gun is introduced in act I, it should go of by the end of the play."? Well I had a few guns lying around, and I set them all off at once this chapter as befits the finale. This is it, the last chapter and then I'm done. Anyway, disclaimer time: I don't own Teen Titans in any way shape or form. That honor belongs to someone at Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging that person! I don't seek a profit from this and hope this doesn't get me sued! On with the show!  
  
To Know the Name of your Enemy

By Wordbearer

Raven entered the main room of Titans Tower with the pink light of early morning staining everything. She silently walked over to the offset kitchen, pausing as her foot sank into a patch of damp carpet. Annoyance flickered briefly in one eye before her normal deadpan look reasserted itself and she carefully made her way through the scattered party debris. The others had decided to hold a celebration in honor of Terra's ascension to Titan status, not a prospect that thrilled the dark mystic. It had been loud and long, Terra fitting almost perfectly into the group dynamic as Raven reverted to her role of token participant. She had snatched a few slices of pizza, thwarted Beastboy's efforts to drag her into the celebration, and then faded into the background prior to leaving for her room unnoticed.  
It did not surprise Raven in the least that the mess was still here. She set about clearing the cluttered kitchen counter with a sigh, having no intent of drinking her tea at such a noisome surface. Yellow had begun to bleed into the sky when Terra entered.

She was clad in a pair of green pajamas as she blinked sleepily at Raven from the doorway, "You're up and dressed this early in the morning? I knew that you got up before me, but this is ridicuolous." Raven said nothing. Terra squinted at a blinking digital clock.

"It's 6:30 in the morning. What are you doing at the sink?"

The cloaked half-daemon put the last dish in the dishwasher and finally answered, "Making this place look like a pack of animals doesn't live here."

"Oh," Terra gave the cluttered room a glance and continued softly.

"Guess we did leave the place a mess. Party broke up late and we stumbled into bed half blind."

The blond narrowed her eyes in reflection and asked, "Is something bothering you Raven?"

The response was curt and severe, cold with Raven's monotonic inflection, "Of course not, you saved the day and got a spot on the team. What is there to be unhappy about?"

Terra blinked but continued, "I don't know, you seemed subdued last night." Raven raised an eyebrow skeptically, prompting Terra to hurry on.

"I mean, even for you. You were so quiet that you disappeared and I didn't notice until Beastboy pointed it out." Raven set her water boiling, staring into the wall.

At last the dark mystic spoke, "I was tired last night, that whole ordeal took a lot out of me and I was in no mood to be social. After I left I spent the rest of the evening meditating. The thin blond scratched her head, hesitating to ask her next question, but persisted. Raven turned toward to the stove as her water boiled and Terra quietly asked.

"Could I ask you one more question?"

"Yes?"

"Yesterday while I was repairing your charka thing I heard a voice in my head, called itself Trigon. I hope I was hallucinating because I don't want anything that says 'flay the soul from your blank' to be real…" Raven's eyes widened in shock and a light bulb broke as some of her control slipped at hearing these words flow from Terra's mouth. The blond knew that she had hit some major nerve. However, by the time the dark mystic had turned around, her grey features were composed again. Terra waited expectantly for an answer. Raven was gathering here thoughts when an arrogant sounding, male voice echoed in her head.

"I hope that I haven't caught you at a bad time, Dark child. We need to… talk at this time."

The half daemon looked around the room in confusion for the source of voice. Terra was puzzled by Raven's behavior and questioned, "Now what is it?" The other didn't have a chance to reply as light flooded the room. A small pop of displaced air followed as it rushed to fill the void left by a vanished figure. Terra blinked and looked around for Raven in vain.

In an effort to fill the newly silent chamber, she said to herself, "That's one way to avoid a conversation." Her eyes locked on a scorched patch of tile in the kitchen.

"I don't think that she meant to leave though…" The thin blond hurried towards the door to get the others.  
Raven reappeared sprawled on the ground, next to a half deconstructed shelter at the edge of the island. She got to her feet and was looking around her. She sensed the visitor before she saw him, her empathic senses picking up on his potent aura even suppressed as she normally kept them.

He spoke from behind her, "Ah, Raven. It is such a pleasure to speak with you. You are held in such high regard by my patron Trigon." Raven narrowed her eyes over her shoulder at the red skinned speaker whose translucent braincase glimmered faintly in the dawn light.

The dark mystic's response was low and calm, "You must be Psimon." Psimon positively stank of daemonic power, his aura thick with extra dimensional energy.

He gave a sardonic bow, although his lightless eyes were deadly serious as he spoke, "Correct. Do you also know what I said to your friends prior to sending them your way yesterday?"

Raven's eyes were cold as she turned around and faced the black robed figure. He laughed at her lack of response, "Your silence tells me that you do. I meant what I said. I have been given great power that I may use as I will. The only precondition regarding its use is that I kill you with it."

Raven's response was curt, "Then why don't you do so. You're going to bore me to death at this rate." Psimon's face twisted in anger, his ego tweaked by the flippant answer. He slipped his arms out of his black robe, staring imperiously at the petite girl before him who hid her face in shadow by raising her hood. Psimon's voice was almost a growl as he spoke.

"That will be the last thing you say in this world, darkling. Say 'thank you' to your father on my behalf when you see him on the other side." He gestured and a veritable cloud of objects lifted into the air above him, shrouding him in their collective shadow. Raven's eyes widened briefly in alarm at the sheer mass of objects levitated, but managed to calm herself as he gestured again. The objects blurred as they flew towards her, seemingly hungry for the half daemon's blood. A black barrier rose seconds before impact would have occurred, ringing deflections sending projectiles on wildly variant vectors. The barrier flowed around to the left as the barrage continued. Raven formed a dome as objects darted toward her from all sides at supersonic speed. One hit would be enough to kill or seriously injure her. A predatory smile gleamed on Psimon's crimson face as Raven's eyes blazed white in response to the strain.  
Psimon kicked it up a notch and Raven's black dome was rendered nearly invisible as the barrage thickened. Dust devils whirled as airborne streams of dirt impacted the half daemon's barrier. Her eyes twitched in strain and a mound began to engulf her shield in earth. Black sparks arched from the barrier as the last of it was encased. The mound rose and rose until it was twice the height and width Raven's ebony shield had been. Psimon smiled complacently and relaxed when the mound slumped inward, telegraphing the collapse of Raven's bubble-like shield under tons of earth.

A thunderous clamor of falling debris hid his whispered comment, "It is over. With the death of Raven, I am free to…" He faltered as a cloaked figure rose from a glistening pool atop the mound.  
Raven was battered and dust covered, her blue cloak streaked with dirt and blood from a dozen small cuts. Her eyes flared and a rock caught the black clad figure on chin, knocking him to the ground. She didn't get another chance to act as Psimon telepathically filled her head with noise. Her nose bled as a cacophonous wailing made it impossible to think. Raven was writhing on the ground in pain. Psimon smiled thinly at the spectacle and directed a telepathic message at the tormented Titan.

"Pitiful. The way Trigon spoke of you, I was under the impression that this would be a challenge. But you're just another defenseless prey without a shining glass bauble to protect you. What happened? You were such a good little killer at the tender age of six…"

Raven struggled to think through the chaos in her head, managing to whisper, "Stop it."

"Why?" Because the truth hurts? Because you're less than human, merely a daemon?" Raven held herself up with trembling arms and looked at the smug figure with eyes that sporadically flashed white.

Psimon continued, "But you aren't a full daemon are you? Just another crossbreed born of rape." Raven's eyes flared red just before she slumped to the ground, her strength exhausted.

Psimon continued mockingly, "Like all crossbreeds, you fail. Too afraid of the world, your potential, your heritage to do anyone any good. In fact, I'll kill you right now and put you out of your misery." He turned away from Raven in a display of arrogant unconcern gesturing at a stone as it rose into the air at his silent command. He almost missed the soft rustle of cloth as Raven rose to her feet and the subsequent snap of unnatural growth.  
The dark mystic towered over him, her petite body enclosed and suspended by the vast flowing length of her now living cloak. Ebony tendrils clutched the ground and left trails of frost in the morning air. Four eyes blazed red in the shadows of her hood and her mouth opened in a feral snarl. Psimon was unafraid, almost ecstatic, as she closed on him.

His eyes locked on Raven's form as he whispered, "This is what Trigon meant…" he was unresisting as black tendrils dragged him into the darkness that lurked under the cloak, darkness with a hundred thousand icy teeth. A shredding noise began to emanate from the confines of the living cloth. Raven glanced around the island with unhuman disinterest just before her cloak bulged alarmingly in response to Psimon's determined resistance. All four eyes opened wide in pain and Raven clutched the ground fiercely. A strange scene ensued, raven in all her terrible daemonic glory concentrating inward as her cloak bulged and stretched alarmingly. With each bulge, the cloth ripped, ebony spurts of ichor spurting out in miniature streams that vaporized even as the morning light hit them. A terrible buzzing arose in the depths of her cloak as great rifts tore through the central portion of the living fabric that bore her up. The cloth ripped with a snap and the dark mystic was thrown onto the ground ten feet away, hard. Her quartet of eyes bled light form the corners as she held them shut in reaction to the sheer pain of the experience. Raven tried to wrap herself in the ragged remnants of the writhing fabric that bled even more as she curled into the fetal position.  
Psimon stood slightly crouched, his black robe shredded and hanging off one shoulder. He was cut all over as if he had dived into a pool of shaving razors and a crack ran through his brain case. The blue fabric of Raven's sundered cloak lay all around him like a filthy pool and its fringe of tendrils boiled away like mist as he walked over the weakly thrashing fabric towards the fallen mystic. A ring of flying rock shards orbited around him at lethal speed like a buzzsaw.

Frost encrusting his red skin, Psimon panted in the half-daemon's general direction, "Most… impressive… dark… child. That attack would have killed one who hasn't floated in the Abyss naked and survived. I won't make that mistake again. You die now." Psimon focused and the deadly projectiles spining around him stilled, hovering in midair prior to being sent after their target. Psimon was about to act when some sixth sense made him look behind him.  
A starbolt blasted Psimon from his feet from behind. His head hit the ground as Robin's voice cried out, "There's no way we're going to let you hurt her, you monster. Raven is a Titan and that means you're going down. Titans go!" Starfire, Robin, Beastboy, and Terra were airborne, closing with the red-skinned villain from the general direction of Titans Tower. Psimon tilted his head and clicked his tongue in amusement at this latest wave of reinforcements. Raven lay ignored as the fight flared up, huddling in her cloak on the ground and staring at nothing. Psimon deflected a second wave of starbolts with a gesture and sent the glowing spheres slamming explosively into Terra's stony mount. The slab of rock shattered, Terra sent sprawling to the ground. Robin acrobatically leapt from the exploding rock and directed an overhead kick at Psimon, only to be struck by an invisible shockwave and hurled into the air. Beastboy soaring in bird form was hit by Robin and fortunately, deshifted just before they both hit the ground, knocked cold. Starfire angrily hurled herself at the glass skulled figure only to drop to the ground in agony as her senses' were telepathically twisted by her target. Too exhausted to revert to her human form, Raven's eyes opened in sudden realization as she was hit by an epiphany. Terra grunted as she hurled a large rock at the seemingly invinsible foe. Smiling coldly, Psimon grabbed the airborne rock with his powers, wrenching it out of Terra's control seconds before it would have hit his back. He split the rock in two, sending each piece at a standing female Titan. Starfire was defenselessly clutching her skull in pain and the hit drove the air from her lungs. Terra tried to redirect the projectile, but Psimon gave it a boost and the rock clipped her in the head. The blond lithokinetic lay still, bleeding from the scalp, last of the Titan's to fall.

Ignored and slowly regaining strength, Raven murmured, "I've been fighting the wrong enemy. Psimon isn't a threat, he's a tool, a pawn, a weapon running on burrowed power. With any luck, the power source will be my father…"

Psimon chuckled as he walked toward her, "The Teen Titans ground beneath my heel as if they didn't exist. Now this is power. Now to fulfill my bargain…" He gestured with his left hand and held his right palm level. A shard of glass darted over his palm and began to spin like a drill in the air, promising death. He gestured again and Raven was dragged aloft, her ragged cloak partially covering her flesh as it oozed darkness.

"You die, girl. Know that your death is the beginning of my deification." The petite half-daemon turned her face to look directly at her tormenter with her hood askew. Psimon paused, genuinely disturbed by the expression he saw. Raven stared at him with four flame red eyes, their depths not alive with mindless rage, but penetrating human intelligence. She smiled slightly, the normally friendly gesture ruined by her razor sharp teeth.

Psimon demanded, "What's so amusing?"

She replied evenly, "You're nothing, Psimon and I will defeat you without so much as laying a finger on your sorry excuse for a human body." He quirked an eyebrow in confusion, but before he could do anything Raven began to speak. It was in a low whispering tone and small insects dropped dead as a stream of sibilant syllables flowed from her mouth in an endless word that was as old as God itself. Psimon reacted immediately, flumes of dark red mist exploding from his body in a colorful display of extradimensional physics. He dropped to his knees as energy poured from every pore in his body and into a stream that flowed toward the reciting figure of Raven. She didn't falter in her speech for to say only part of a True Name is to doom your soul to an eternity of slavery. The red mist flowed into her body and turned black as her aura absorbed the rich daemonic energy that pulsed to a rhythm so like her own. She could have been speaking for an instant or an eternity as soul rending pain cut through her psyche at the vile recitation. On some level Raven knew that her daemonic heritage was the only thing that kept her from dropping dead as she spoke and was grateful to Trigon for that small blessing in the face of her many curses. Psimon crumbled to the ground, his eyes now a milky white as the last of Trigon's gifted power was rent from him, for the power was imbued with the daemon lord's essence and flowed in mindless loyalty toward the reciter of his True Name as would Trigon himself if he were present. The last of her father's name trickled past her bleeding lips and Raven opened her eyes to find herself lost in a thick black cloud of energy. The power rippled at the edge of control and lashed out at random. The island shook. Objects took to the air, glistening black before slamming back to the ground. She narrowed her eyes in concentration, consciously reverting to human form as she channeled the power back into the Abyss via the gate in her soul. The effort was tremendous and in conjunction with the ravages of reciting Trigon's True Name, she slumped to the ground. Breathing heavy and fast, she barely held onto the edge of consciousness.  
She looked blearily out of the corner of her eye at Robin as he cautiously took Psimon's pulse. "…Seems to still be alive…"

Starfire's concerned voice sounded light years away as she spoke, "How is Raven?"

Someone lifted her numb arm and said, "She's alive, but doesn't look so good."

Robin's insistent command echoed weirdly in her ears, "Get her to the infirmary! Starfire and Beastboy, watch Psimon in case… Terra you have transport duties." Raven's dazed hearing didn't pick up the blonde's reply. The ground rocked beneath Raven and Raven vaguely saw a golden glow engulf the dirt in front of her face. A shadow dimmed the light as someone hopped on the slightly bouncing stone sled. The last thing the dark mystic heard before unconsciousness claimed her was Terra's insistent request.

"Whatever you do, don't die on me Raven. I won't pretend to understand what just happened and you can be darn scary at times, but just don't die on me…" The darkness engulfed Raven's sight.  
Raven opened her eyes to see infinite white light in all directions. Her confusion was replaced with fear as she realized that she couldn't feel her body at all. Or anything else for that matter. Her composure was on the edge of shattering when a familiar voice spoke,

"Hey, Raven. Long time no see." The deep laugh that followed filled her with both dread and pleasure.

She asked hesitantly, "Cyborg? Is that you?"

Humor bled thickly from the reply, "You could say so. Cyborg isn't the name I would use right now, but it will do."

Anger colored her voice, "Is this a dream? If it is, please let me off at the next stop."

"Still testy, Raven… No, this isn't a dream. I'll just say that your little spat with Psimon knocked you out of the ballpark…" Raven reflected on the number of meanings this term could have and settled on the most dire to get it out of the way.

Curtly yet with traces of fear in her voice, "Am I dead?"

Cyborg's voice was vastly more serious now, "No. You aren't. But it was close and I decided to snag your spirit for a little heart to heart before sending you back to the land of the living since I am the one in the white robe and playing the harp."

At this mention, guilt rose in her thoughts, Cyborg cutting in with fierce intensity, "Oh no! No pity parties for you. Yes, I'm dead. No, it's not your fault. I expect you get over that nonsense pronto!"

"What right to do have to tell me to…" Raven trickled off as she realized she was apparently arguing with her dead teammate.

Cyborg sounded self-righteous as he spoke, "Every right. You internalize everything that happens to you, with good reason I now know, but if you don't loosen up sometime… Well, you just blow up. What does that do for your track record if you destroy the tower because someone used up the last of your tea to flavor his tofu recipe?" Raven would have blinked if she had had eyelids or eyes at the time.

Cyborg sounded more jocular as he added, "That's a heads-up by the way. He'll try it in a few days. Insider info, trust me…"

Serious again, "Well, you have to go back now or your visit is going to become permenant. Just give Terra a chance, okay? She's not that bad, a tad insecure, but you two can help one another." Cyborg's voice began to fade as the white glow began to dim.

Raven called out, "Wait! Cyborg! Are you mad at me for causing your death?"

Cyborg jeered kindly, "Heh. What did I tell you about it not being your fault? Besides, death gives you a whole new perspective on things, trust me. BB is going to kill when he sees the video game systems they have up here…" With that, the light blinked out.

Raven snapped awake with a small cry in the darkened infirmary and a dozen small objects scattered across the room were engulfed in black before her reserve took its customary place of primacy. She worked her mouth and realized that it was numbed and wrapped in bandages. A loud wheezing snore caught her attention and she looked over at Terra who was sleeping in a chair against the infirmary wall. Raven started to cringe as she spotted the drool that was working its way down the blonde's chin, but halted herself. Dream or no dream, she felt better after that chat with Cyborg, or whatever it was that had his voice, than she had in a long time.

Speaking in a soft wondering tone, Raven said, "Maybe I should give Terra an opening? What could it hurt?" Terra released a loud, high pitched snore at that moment that made Raven want to hurl a pillow at her such was its piercing, repulsiveness.

"Or maybe not. I suppose that I can sleep on it." The half-daemon settled back on her pillow and simply enjoyed the darkness, awaiting Terra's awakening with quiet contentment. She eventually accepted the Terra's erratic snores for what they were; a sign that she was not alone in the shadows.

So you made it down here. Honor and glory onto you, oh brave reader(s)! What did you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a reveiw and tell me what you think of this chapter or the story as whole. I am grateful for your time and thank you all for your kind reviews.


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